Did a Google Street View Car Kill This Donkey?

In their high-paced efforts to document the mean streets of the world, it appears as if Google may have become cold-blooded donkey killers. In a series of shocking photographs widely circulating on Twitter, you can see the Google Street View car driving past a donkey in one shot and the brutal and dusty demise of the beast in the next.

However, while these images have stirred up a lot of controversy among the social media community, representatives from Google say the photos are not as they seem. In fact, the Internet giant claims that the donkey was already injured when the Google car passed by and then fell down onto the road shortly thereafter. Google denies that one of their vehicles had anything to do with the donkey's slaughter.

“Our Street View teams take the safety of people and donkeys very seriously,” a representative said. “A review of our imagery confirms that we did not cause any harm to the donkey.”

We try not to get political on this site, but Google's decision to take a firm public stance in favor of Donkey safety is the straw that broke the camel's back -- we're switching to Bing.